Memories of an Old French Sea Dog – Against the Wind and the Crimson Pirate

The text relating to the pictures is under them, it looks like Blogger has changed yet again in how text and pictures are inserted, Bugger them.
Another story taken from the Log Book of Capitaine Jean le Vagabond, some events and recollections may differ from the official French Naval Records but I am sure mine are the more accurate.

We had been fighting the wind for days and days and days, well it seemed like that at the time. With the wind on the nose as we old sailors like to say life is a misery, nothing is right with the world, the seas bang into our bows, we get wet from the spray and the worse thing of all for a Frigate Captain is heading into the wind escorting 2 fat old ladies, they are slow. Fat old ladies is how we describe the rich merchant ships that we have to escort over the oceans, they turn a profit for some lazy Merchant who never goes to sea, but France needs the goods and so we have to do our duty.

Of all the ships I’ve sailed in there’s one that holds my heart and always will, yes Hermione we both know she is your namesake, I wonder why your mother she named you so. Baptiste I believe you wanted to call your daughter Gertrude, I’m just so pleased your dear wife prevailed. As penance I believe it’s your time to buy the drinks, I’ll have my usual 98 brandy if you don’t mind, you may chose whatever you would like for yourself.

Hermione you can understand that when you’ve been at sea as long as we had, a sail, any sail is an excitment, all at once there’s desire, the desire to meet and talk to another person, find out the latest news, maybe even get mail, but just see a new face is a pleasure. Although there’s always the fear, the fear that it will be an enemy, a man who will try to take your life, rob you or enslave you.

Of course Hermione that fear never afflicted Jean le Vagabond when I was onboard Hermione, we could outfight any other ship afloat, and those we couldn’t outfight we could out sail and so we feared nothing and no one.

We were in an area of the ocean that my reports said were infested by pirates, one in particular was called the Crimson Pirate, he had a reputation for good seamanship, audacity and ruthlessness to his captives. I knew he commanded a large ship, bigger than Hermione, more guns a bigger crew and he was reputed to be fast as well. I had every confidence in my ship and crew but the 2 merchantmen would be easy prey and so you see I had a dilemma when the lookout cried “Sail ho”.

If this was the Crimson Pirate I knew we could out sail him but to outfight him I was going to have to rely on a slight amount of good luck or the Merchantmen and I did not trust the later to be better than the former.

I determined it was indeed the Pirate and we were downwind of him, I needed to put Hermione between the 2 fat ladies and this predatory adversary. I brought Hermione about, and went through the wind intending to cut between Neptune and Aquilon. This was a dangerous manoeuvre to turn into the wind in front of Neptune, if we failed our tack she would slice into us and that would be the end, but I had confidence in my crew and so when I shouted the series of orders that would change the sail setting and course I had a light and happy heart.

I can’t say the same for the Captain of the Neptune, he ran to the bows of his ship shouting and waving his fist at us. Well he would have run but he was similar to his ship and so waddled as fast as he could.

The Captain of the Aquilon was made of sterner stuff and he fired a broadside at the Africa, for that was the name of the Crimson Pirates vessel. His gun crew didn’t do much damage but I never really expected them to. It was disappointing to see their ineptitude compared to the sailors on the Hermione who were a crack crew, if I say so myself. They had been trained by my hand into a finely honed machine and we had been together long enough that their devotion to me was unquestioning; I knew they would sail off the end’s of the earth if I asked them to.

I see that you are smiling Hermione but it is just an allusion I know perfectly well the earth is not flat, I who have sailed it man and boy know the Oceans like the back of this gnarled old hand of mine.

As we shot across his bows I gave the Neptune’s Captain a gay wave and Hermione sliced through the waves, responding to the deft touch of my helmsman like a 1000 Franc mare. We crossed the bow of the Pirate ship and gave him a broadside that must have rattled his teeth, the Neptune also managed a weak salvo that must have surprised their craven Captain. After the action I presented the old salt who commanded her guns with a box of the finest French brandy. Well maybe not as good as this 98 brandy, this story telling is proving thirsty work Baptiste I would be grateful for another glass if you don’t mind.

The Crimson Pirate turned away from my sweet but deadly Hermione and headed towards the Merchantmen giving us a blast from his port stern cannon and I will say, his gunners were good, we took more damage that I expected and some of my best crewmen were laid low.

What do you mean Baptiste, it’s not at all complicated, your Hermione is following my story perfectly well aren’t you my dear. Just pass me 4 beer bottles Baptiste and I will explain it so your simple landsman’s brain can understand. No not those bottles, the empty ones, don’t you remember the last time you passed partly full bottles! There was almost a riot when you spilt the Blacksmith’s beer, if I hadn’t been here you would have been in real trouble.

I had signalled the merchantmen to turn to starboard, and as I planned, this allowed the gun captain on the Neptune to fire another salvo at Africa, of course he didn’t do much damage but it must have worried the Crimson Pirate to realise that the Merchantmen were encouraged by my presence to fight back. Without a bold French Naval Officer protecting them they would normally just surrender.

The Neptune and Aquilon were on their course southward as the Africa turns to give chase, at the same time Hermione turns to intercept him.

I can see by the glint in your eye Hermione that you have understood the bold move I must make. I have to keep the Africa away from my two fat ladies and give them time to make their getaway. The only way to do that is for me to fight him ship to ship, he is bigger, with more guns and crew but we have boldness, bravery and a crew who have complete faith in their Captain, it would be a close run thing.

The damn fool of a Captain on the Neptune was on his bow, shaking his fist again as we crossed within metres of his bowsprit, but his gun crews were shouting huzza for our bravado, they knew fine seamanship even if he didn’t.

We slipped between Neptune and Aquilon like a ghost and were now in the perfect position to allow their escape even if it meant sacrificing our lives on their behalf.

With full sails set these two fat ladies made a famous sight, one to gladden the eye of the hardest sailor.

If only they could sail as famously as they looked, if they could fly away rather than wallowing through the waves then I would have a glad heart going into this fight knowing our sacrifice would not be in vain. Enough of that defeatist thinking, I am Jean le Vagabond and my ship will never be beaten by a mere Pirate. I ordered more sails to be raised and we sped towards him, Hermione seemed to sense my urgency.

The Crimson Pirate was having problems, you remember Hermione when I said that tacking wasn’t always as easy as a landsman would think, well he had misjudged his speed going into the tack and had not turned through the eye of the wind. Unfortunately I didn’t expect him to make such an elementary mistake and so he was able to fire a salvo at us.

It was not as bad as I feared because some fool had calculated the damage to be at short range when it should have been at long range which made a big difference.

We had the wind on our beam giving us a famous turn of speed but that combined with the swell meant that when our forward port battery fired the balls fell short and buried themselves in the sea. I don’t know how many times I’ve explained to Gilbert the Forward Larboard Gun Captain to fire high in those circumstances but he’s a good hearted fellow even if a little slow in the head and he needs to support his old mother and so I can’t just keelhaul him as he deserves. You are right Hermione sometimes I’m too soft hearted but that’s one of the reasons my men love me so.

The Africa was in dire straits, she had the wind on her nose and what ever the helmsman did she just kept flopping side to side going backwards all the time, this made my life very difficult as you understand. What do you mean Baptise you don’t understand, give me those bottles again will you and I’ll explain.

You can see that I had positioned my Hermione perfectly with the wind behind and I was turning hard to larboard and would give the Pirate a full starboard broadside at close range, this would rake his ship from stem to stern and then I intended to board him and see the fellow hang.

Because he had lost control the wind took over and pushed him away which meant he did to my beautiful Hermione what I had intended to do to him. We suffered tremendous damage and I realized at once that the game was up. We would need all our skill and determination to weather this storm.

We came around into the wind and close enough to see the frightened looks on the faces of the scurvy pirate horde but our broadside was a weak effort, even though I had the guns double shotted and then the musketry from the pirates was far more accurate than anyone could have envisaged.

They were working feverishly to reload for another broadside and we would be reduced to a smoking ruin at this range. What could we do to avoid the disaster of being taken captive by a merciless pirate?

Cheat appears to be the answer, in this photo Africa looks as though she should have fired, but didn’t. My notes just say Hermione turned in to Africa who turned away!!!!

We continued turning and both ships fired ineffectual salvos.

In spite of the bravery of my crew we were outnumbered and took more crew casualties from musketry as well. Things were looking very bleak at this point and I was at a loss to know how we should prevail, but a man such as I is never at a loss for long.

I could see the Merchantmen escaping and knew we had prevented the Pirate ship taking a rich prize and so all that remained for us to do was re-join out two fat ladies, but in the process of disengaging he was able to fire another devastating broadside raking us from Stern to Stem, damaging our rudder in the process.

It took tremendous skill to manage my poor damaged Hermione but once out of range from his heavy guns we were able to show him a clean pair of heals and so rejoined our charges and escort them home to France.

It was a long sail home and the pumps never stopped, I had so few crew remaining that most of the damage was not repaired until we landed at Rochforte where I received a hero’s welcome and a gold watch and chain from the grateful merchant ship owners.

There was a small piece of nastiness and spite from the Captain of the Neptune when he accused me of recklessness but our Navy needs bold and daring sailors and there were non bolder or more daring than Jean le Vagabond you can be sure of that.

Well that was a close call, 1 more damage point and you would have seen the unthinkable sight of Jean le Vagabond surrendering his sword to a pirate. Mind you there would have been some daring escape cooked up that would see him back on the high seas pretty soon.

The HMS Africa was called up to stand in for the Crimson Pirate’s ship, she has been fumigated and re-painted and is now back in His Majesties Royal Navy.

A grand scenario and my decision to let the Merchantmen run while I tried to hold up the pirate was probably a big mistake and I nearly lost my ship. I did think when I was flying down towards the Pirate that the double 0 drawn might be an omen and then at the last minute for me to take the raking instead of giving one was a shock and probably just shows my inexperience.